LONG BEACH – It took a jury roughly 90 minutes to find a woman guilty of murder for ramming her SUV at more than 80 mph into another car last summer, killing the passenger and permanently injuring the driver.

As the verdict was read in the Long Beach Superior Court Wednesday afternoon, relatives of the deceased – 67-year-old Phyllis Johnson of Norwalk – and the surviving victim – Johnson’s son, Michael Durain – broke down and cried.

“It’s made us believe in the justice system,” said one of the the victim’s daughters, Diane Rosan-Wallace. “We were afraid it could fail us, but it didn’t.”

Christina Sajor Reeder, 42, of Tustin was charged with second-degree murder with implied malice for the June 14, 2007, crash. Authorities allege Sajor drove her Ford Explorer, with her 2-year-old daughter in a child seat in the back, at more than 80 miles per hour into Johnson’s Saturn as the victims were stopped at a red light at Wardlow Road and Clark Avenue.

The implied malice portion of the murder charge found Sajor guilty because she acted with complete disregard to human life based on two factors: that she knew driving recklessly could result in someone’s death because she was convicted of evading police in 2003; and that Sajor knew going off her medications for her severe bipolar disorder could have drastic consequences.

Defense Attorney Edmont Barrett said he was surprised by the guilty verdict.

“Frankly, I think this was an unfair verdict,” Barrett said, insisting Sajor was in a psychotic break and completely unaware of her actions that day.

Although the jury was told that Sajor was found fit for trial and therefore could not be found not guilty by reason of insanity, they were given the option of finding her guilty of vehicular manslaughter, a lesser charge that would not have carried as much prison time.

“At first when the jury came back so fast I was worried they had gone with the … manslaughter charge,” said Deputy District Attorney Joe Weimortz, who postponed his departure from the prosecutor’s office to finish this trial.

Weimortz is one of two Long Beach DAs who have accepted offers to work as private practice defense attorneys with Henry Salcido, considered among the best defense attorneys in the state. But when it was time for him to begin his new career, he was compelled to delay his move to finish this case, he said.

“I started to tear up when (the victim’s family) were hugging me, which I don’t normally do,” the prosecutor said. “I don’t know if it was because I was so emotionally invested in this case … or if it was because this was my last (case) as a DA, but I really took this case to heart.”

Weimortz wasn’t the only one to feel that way.

Lead Detective Ray Dennison, who has more than 20 years experience with the Long Beach Police Department’s Accident Investigations detail, postponed his retirement until the end of the month to finish the case.

Johnson’s children praised Dennison for his hard work, crediting him with pulling the entire case together.

In order for the jury to find Sajor guilty of murder, they first had to find her not guilty of the manslaughter charge.

When the court clerk read the verdict on the manslaughter charge was not guilty, the tears began to flow for some of Johnson’s relatives.

“We knew then,” Rosan-Wallace said. “It was a like a weight was being lifted.”

When the clerk read the guilty verdict for the counts of second-degree murder and felony child abuse, the entire family broke down, she said.

Two of Johnson’s daughters sat through every hour of testimony in the seven-day trial, accompanied by other family and friends.

Durain also attended with his sisters, but because he was a victim of the crash and witness to his mother’s death, he had to spend the hours of testimony sitting on a concrete bench in the courthouse hallway.

Johnson’s car, which was driven by Durain, was thrown the length of two football fields and was so badly mangled in the crash that some witnesses testified they thought it had been sheared in half.

Johnson was pronounced dead at the scene and her son was treated for crushed vertebrae in his spine, smashed ribs and a broken right arm that was literally snapped off his shoulder and nearly severed.

His injuries required the use of a wheelchair for six months and a halo bolted into his skull for about half that time. To this day, Durain attends physical therapy twice a week and will likely never work again as a commercial plumber.

The only person who attended the trial on behalf of Sajor was her elderly father, who sat quietly in the courtroom after the verdict was read. He seemed calm but concerned and cried steadily throughout his daughter’s earlier testimony.

Sajor will be given another chance to address the court when she returns for her sentencing on Nov. 5, where she faces a maximum sentence of more than 16 years to life in prison.

She was calm during the reading of the verdict and spoke quietly to Barrett, a private practice defense lawyer assigned to represent her.

Barrett insisted no evidence was presented to prove the allegation his client had not taken her many medications and that testimony that she was in a psychotic break, suffering hallucinations and delusions, was “uncontested” in the court.

“It’s a tragic case, no doubt,” Barrett said. “Like I told the jury, if they sat on a jury once a month for the rest of their lives they would never see a case as tragic as this one.

“But this was not murder.”

Weimortz, however, did focus heavily on the testimony of a psychologist called by the defense who told the jury Sajor was in a psychotic state, suffering hallucinations and delusions at the time of the crash.

The DA noted Sajor was never diagnosed as having hallucinations; and that while one nurse noted what could have been a hallucination during one bed check in three years, the defendant denied having any hallucinations on 56 separate occasions.

The doctor and the prosecutor engaged in two days of heated verbal sparring, with the psychologist snapping at the DA for pacing and criticizing the attorney’s medical references, calling them “out of date” and insulting Weimortz several times in front of the jury.

The psychologist also argued with the judge in front of the jury, particularly when the issue of the number of Sajor’s denials of hallucinations arose.

Judge Tomson Ong ordered the psychologist to go through Sajor’s medical records the night before his second day on the stand. The doctor was told to note every time Sajor denied having hallucinations. The following day, before the jury was called in, the doctor told the judge he had found about 16 references to denials after reading the files for four hours.

The judge noted he found 56 denials after taking less than 90 minutes to read the files, then went through the paperwork with the psychologist to confirm his findings before the jury was brought in.

But when the psychologist was questioned about the issue on the stand, he did not tell the jury about the 56 denials, prompting the judge to halt the proceedings, pull out the file, and show the jury how many times Sajor had denied having hallucinations.

Weimortz seized on that in his closing statement, repeatedly referring to the thick black binder that held Sajor’s medical files as his $2,100 binder – basing the figure on the psychologist’s $175-an-hour court paid fee.

“It was clear from the start that he was paid for his findings, and that is not how it’s supposed to be,” Weimortz said Wednesday.